


The Kids Aren't Alright (And Neither Am I)

by stonyandco



Series: Superheroes, Superhusbands, and Superparents [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Divergence - Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Domestic Avengers, Kid Fic, M/M, Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Superfamily, Superfamily (Marvel), Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony-centric, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 19:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14196147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonyandco/pseuds/stonyandco
Summary: Steve and Tony are married with children, living a happy life as a family, with the Avengers being like an extended family. But what happens when the Accords come around and Steve and Tony can't agree on how to go about them. How will they cope, and how will their life together change if they can't figure it out?--Civil War AU where Steve and Tony are already married with three kids.





	The Kids Aren't Alright (And Neither Am I)

Years ago, when he was a young and pissed at the world, his idea of a perfect night was any time he was getting trashed. The more booze and more people, the better.

Now though, this was his idea of a perfect night. Sitting in his favorite comfy armchair in the living room, lazily working on designs for some tech on his StarkPad. On his lap was his 6-year-old daughter, half watching him work and asking questions, half fighting off sleep as she cuddled farther into him. At the coffee table were his 9 and 7-year-old sons, playing cards with each other. His husband had been playing with them but walked away to answer a phone call.

Now, Tony Stark’s idea of a perfect night was spending it with his family.

Even when said family maybe wasn’t in the greatest mood.

“No fair you cheated!”

“I didn’t cheat, you just suck at cards!”

“Well, you just suck period!”

“Hey, boys,” Tony interrupted, “stop fighting or you’re both going to your rooms.”

“Peter started it,” Matt said. Peter looked like he was about to continue arguing, but Tony spoke up before he could.

“You two have been bickering with each other all night. I don’t care who started it, both of you are going to your rooms if it continues,” Tony responded casually, but both boys knew he meant business. They started up a new game, and when he saw that they were playing nice, went back to his designs. A moment later, when looking at the design, a little hand reached out and pointed to the screen.

“What's that?” The sleepy voice asked.

“Which part, Bella Bear? The watch or the light?” He asked, brushing his hand through her hair.

“The watch. Don’t you have one?”

“I do, but not one like this. This one will turn into a gauntlet, which is like a special, armored glove for my hand, for if I need it in an emergency and I don’t have my Iron Man suit with me,” Tony explained in the best way he could for the 6-year-old to understand. “Cool, huh?”

Isabel yawned as she nodded, eyes only half open as she continued to fight off sleep. Before he was able to comment on it, he heard a bang coming from the coffee table.

“Stop cheating!” Peter shouted, a mess of cards all over the table and floor.

“Stop being a sore loser!” Matt shouted back, stepping closer to his brother.

Tony had just started to get up from his chair to stop the fighting from getting physical, when Steve came in from the kitchen, quickly walking to and separating the boys by getting in between them.

“I think we shouldn’t end a good day on a sour note. Who threw the cards?” Steve asked, to which Matt quickly pointed to Peter, who had a guilty look on his face.

“Well then Matt, you go and get ready for bed while I help Peter clean up the mess, and then go hang out in your room,” Steve said.

“That’s not fair, I’m older!” Matt pouted.

“We had a long day going on the hike, you could use the extra sleep buddy,” Steve explained, “Besides, as soon as we’re done cleaning the cards, Peter’s getting ready for bed as well. Go and your dad and I will be up there soon.”

Matt didn’t look happy, but he didn’t say anything as he turned and headed out of the living room. Tony watched as Steve knelt down, starting to clean up the cards, as Peter followed suit. He was going to tell Isabel to go finish getting ready for bed when he saw that she was completely asleep. Instead, he picked her up as he stood, carrying his sleeping child on his hip.

“And why don’t we throw things when we’re upset?” Tony heard Steve say to Peter as he walked closer to the two of them.

“Because I could hurt someone by mistake,” Peter responded as he finished picking up the last of the cards, handing them to Steve. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Mistakes happen, just make sure you learn from them,” Steve said, “Now go brush your teeth and then go to your room. Dad and I will come say goodnight in a few minutes.”

“What about a bedtime story?”

“Of course you get a bedtime story if you want one,” Tony chimes in, brushing his free hand through Peter’s hair. “Who’s turn is it for reading?”

“Papa’s!” Peter said, pointing to Steve.

“Well then grab a book as well and we’ll read.” Peter was about to dart off to his room before Tony stopped him.

“Are you going to say goodnight to me?” Tony asked, making a mock sad face, making Peter turn and run to hug his father.

“Good night, Daddy.” Tony leaned down and gave him a kiss on his head, returning the hug as best he could without dropping Isabel.

“Good night Petey. I love you.” At that, Peter returned the ‘I love you’ and headed off to do as he was told, leaving Steve and Tony in the living room with a sleeping Isabel.

“Want me to talk to Matt after I put Isabel in bed?” Tony asked.

“Yeah, that’d be great. Isabel okay? Or just tired from the weekend?”

“I think she’s just tired. She wasn’t showing any signs of being sick, but it’s also been a while since she’s been sick. And we did go to the home, and old people are always sick so who knows what she picked up from there.” Steve chuckled a bit when his husband said that.

“We just saw Peggy, who didn’t have anything that was contagious. You make it sound like a bad thing that she’s been healthy.”

“Not bad, just curious and something to be aware of,” Tony explained. “What was the phone call about?”

Steve sighed, rubbing his face in obvious exhaustion.

“Let’s put the kids to bed, and then we can talk about it after.”

“It’s that bad?” Tony asked, panic already starting to set in. Steve, realizing his mistake, quickly reassured his husband.

“No, sorry. Not bad, just… inconvenient and frustrating at worse.”

“That doesn’t really make me feel much better.”

Steve smiled at that, leaning in and kissing Tony. “It’s fine, I promise. We’ll talk after the kids are asleep,” he explained, moving to kiss Isabel on the head as well, before walking off to Peter’s room.

“FRIDAY, lights please,” Tony said as he walked into Isabel’s room. The light turned on to reveal a pale purple room, filled with toys and books and stuffed animals, similar the other kids' rooms. The room was a disaster, but if Tony was being honest with himself, he liked the kid’s rooms better when things weren’t put away. It was a nice reminder that the kids were just that, kids. He could still see the floor and walk around, so what was the harm in them keeping their toys out and letting their rooms be how they wanted it.

He walked to the middle of the room where her bed was and pulled back the covers before putting Isabel in the bed. As he tucked her in, she stirred a bit before waking up slightly.

“Hey, sweetheart. It’s time for bed,” Tony said gently. She looked around a little, slightly out of it, but obviously looking for something.

“Whatcha looking for?”

“Papa Bear,” she mumbled softly, and Tony knew exactly what she was looking for. Looking around the room, he quickly spotted the blue stuffed bear with his husband’s shied on it as a pattern, dressed in a Captain America uniform. Quickly grabbing it, he handed it to his daughter, who promptly hugged it and pulled in under the covers with her.

“Do you need anything else? Do you want a bedtime story?” Tony asked, but Isabel shook her head, half asleep still.

“Sweet dreams bear. I love you” Tony said, giving her a kiss, seeing that she was now fully asleep. He quietly left the room and turned off the lights, before heading to his oldest’s room. When he got there, the door was closed, though the light was still on under the door, so he knocked softly.

“Come in,” Tony heard from the other side of the door. Opening the door, he saw his eldest sitting on the floor, a number of cards with odd-looking animals on them spread around him.

Matt looked up to see Tony. “Papa said to go to my room, not that I had to go to bed,” he explained.

“I wasn’t going to get mad,” Tony said, “But it is time to put them away and get into bed.”

“But it’s not even that late,” Matt said, though he still started to clean up the cards.

“I know, but we had a really long weekend and you were fighting with your brother all night, probably because you were tired, so it’s early to bed for everyone,” Tony said as he pulled the covers back on the bed for Matt to get into it.

“Peter started it,” Matt grumbled as he crawled into bed. “He always does annoying stuff and then gets mad when I tell him to stop.”

Tony gave his eldest a soft smile. “You need to be nicer to your brother Matty. He looks up to you and just wants you to like him. Both your siblings do.”

“I guess. But it’s still not fair that I have to go to bed at the same time as them, especially when it’s so early.” Tony looked at the clock and did have to agree that it was pretty early for Matt to be going to bed.

“All this complaining and fighting earlier is telling me you probably need the extra sleep,” Tony said pointedly, though he grabbed a book off of Matt’s desk, “but if you want to read for 30 minutes before going to sleep, you can do that,” handing the book to him.

“Yes!” Matt grabbed the current book he was reading, The Titan’s Curse, from Tony, quickly opening it to where he had left off. “Thank you!”

“Your welcome. Papa or I will be back in 30 minutes for bedtime, and I expect no arguing because I already gave you time to read.” Matt nodded, not really paying attention though as he continued to read.

Tony smiled, leaning over to give him a kiss on the head. “I love you.” He said as he headed out of the room, and he smiled a little bigger when he heard a quiet “love you too” from the room.

He walked down the hall, going into the master bedroom, to see Steve already there. He was engrossed with whatever he was looking at on his StarkPad, he didn’t even seem to notice Tony when he walked in.

“Peter asleep?” Tony asked, crawling onto the bed with his husband.

“Yeah. Matt and Isabel?” Steve responded, still distracted.

“Both are in bed, but I let Matt read for half an hour, so at 8:30 one of us needs to go make sure he puts the book away if he’s even still awake at that point.”

Steve nodded, acknowledging Tony, but obviously still not paying attention to him. They sat in silence as Steve continued to look at whatever he was looking at and Tony waited for Steve to talk. He quickly got impatient though, and finally spoke up.

“What was the phone call about babe?”

Steve sighed, finally looking at Tony. “Natasha got wind from one of her sources that Rumlow is somewhere in Nigeria, most likely Lagos, and he’s trying to get something from there this week.” The words were barely out of his husband’s mouth before Tony had connected the dots to why his husband was frustrated.

“When do you need to leave and who else is going?”

“I was gonna take Nat, Sam, and Wanda and we have to leave as soon as possible. Tomorrow afternoon or the morning after at the latest.”

“Which is when I leave for MIT for a few days, leaving no one to watch the kids.” Steve nodded, obviously frustrated with the last minute-ness of everything.

“We could always just leave them with Vision?”

Tony rolled his eyes, thinking back the last, and only, time they left Vision alone with the kids, even for just a couple hours. “I think leaving them under the supervision of just FRIDAY would be a better option than leaving them with Vision for a few nights.”

“Well, then that just leaves seeing if Ben and May can watch them for a few nights.”

“I hate asking them to do that. If it were a weekend or just Peter, that’d be one thing, but all three of them during the week means at least one of them missing work to either come up here or watch the kids down there because they’d be out of school.”

“I know, but you know they’d do it at the drop of a hat. And I really don’t see any other options.” Steve explained, and Tony knew he was right.

“Let me see if I can shorten my trip or if Rhodey can maybe come down on short notice,” Tony said, pulling out his phone to get started on said tasks.

“Okay. I’ll go make sure Matt’s asleep while you do that.” Steve leaned over to Tony, giving him a peck on the cheek, “Sorry this is all so last minute, love.”

“It happens. Such is the life of superhero parents,” Tony said with a soft smile, returning the peck to Steve’s lips. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Steve said, before getting up and leaving the room, as Tony dialed Rhodey’s number.

Years ago, a perfect night ending with Tony calling Rhodey usually meant Tony need Rhodey to take care of him. Now he was calling to ask him to take care of his kids. Maybe something’s didn’t change that much, though Tony could never have predicted how much was going to change in the coming months, and how much his family would be affected.

**Author's Note:**

> Look who finally got her shit together and posted the prologue fo the story she's had planned out for nearly a year! After this chapter, we jump straight into the actual events of Civil War. Idk how many chapters that's going to end up being, but hopefully they'll come out at a faster pace then the prologue did.
> 
> Please let me know what you think!


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